Gaming devices currently exist with bonus rounds in which a player has one or more opportunities to choose masked bonus awards from a pattern or group of masked awards displayed to the player. When the player chooses a masked award from the pattern or group, the game removes the mask and either awards the player with a bonus value or terminates the bonus round with a bonus terminator. The outcome depends upon whether the player selects an award or a terminator.
In the above game, the controller of the gaming device randomly places a predetermined number of masked awards and terminators in the pattern at the beginning of the bonus round and maintains the positioning until the bonus round terminates. When the player selects a masked award, the player receives the value of the award, and the game typically displays a message that the player may continue and enables the player to select another masked award. The player then selects another masked award, and the process continues until the player selects a masked terminator. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 filed on Mar. 18, 1999 and assigned on its face to WMS Gaming, Inc. discloses a bonus scheme of this type.
Gaming machines also currently exist with bonus rounds in which the game selects or determines the player's award. PCT patent application PCT/AU97/00121 entitled, Slot Machine Game with Roaming Wild Card, having a publication date of Sep. 4, 1997, discloses an example. In this invention, a slot machine having a video display contains a plurality of rotatable reels with game symbols. When the player receives a triggering symbol or combination, the game produces a bonus symbol. The bonus symbol moves from game symbol to game symbol temporarily changing the game symbol to a bonus symbol. If the change results in a winning combination, the player receives an award.
In the first known game, the “go-until” or “do-until” bonus round can end quite quickly if the player selects a terminator early in the bonus round. The player blindly selects masked awards until selecting the bonus terminator, which is immediately displayed. The player knows nothing about the location of any particular award, and there is no logical incentive to select any particular masked award as opposed to any another masked award. Choosing a masked award also poses no risk to a previously accumulated award. That is, there is no incentive to stop selecting. The only logical course is for the player to continue selecting until selecting a terminator. The player's involvement in the bonus round and thus the player's level of enjoyment and excitement from the bonus round is thus limited.
The second known game has even less player interaction. The game completely determines the bonus round award, and the player has no affect on the outcome. The player is a mere observer to the bonus round sequence and participates only by receiving an award. In both games, the player is not prompted to calculate, weigh options, or explore any consequences of any action. To increase player excitement and enjoyment, it is desirable to provide a gaming device, and more specifically a bonus round of a gaming device, which prompts a player to calculate, weigh options and explore the consequences of the player's selection.
In the known “go-until” or “do-until” bonus round, the game reveals all unselected awards and terminators associated with the pattern after the player selects a terminator. No specific reference is made as to how or in which manner the game reveals the unselected awards or terminators. Revealing the masks from selected and unselected awards and other gaming device components is well known in the art. No known game, however, reveals awards or other gaming device components in any particular manner or employs any particular method of deciding which awards to reveal first, second, etc. It should be appreciated, that in a game which prompts a player to calculate, weigh options, and explore the consequences of the player's selection, it is desirable to reveal the consequences of the player's selection in a manner that maximizes player excitement and enjoyment.